A 14-year-old boy from Blackburn and a 16-year-old girl from
Manchester have been arrested as part of an ongoing
investigation, according to Greater Manchester Police. They have
been bailed until May 28.

Police said the boy was arrested on "suspicion of preparing
for an act of terrorism” and the girl “on suspicion of
engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism,”
Reuters reported.

The
mother of the school girl downplayed her daughters role in the
alleged terror plot, telling authorities that the teenager
“had been playing a joke”.

“I am not sure what happened. I think she might have been
playing a joke with a friend,” she said, Manchester Evening
News reports.

The girl’s computer and mobile phone have been confiscated by the
authorities for further analysis.

The latest arrests were
not connected to the nine British nationals from nearby Rochdale
who were arrested trying to cross the border into Syria from
Turkey, police said.

Nor was there a link to the six people, (five men and one woman
in their twenties), who were arrested in a ferry terminal in
Dover on Friday night in relation to the Syrian conflict.

Police have been given until next Friday to question them, before
they release or charge them, or have to apply for more time so
that further questioning can be conducted.

While the cases may not be linked, they illustrate the increasing
number of terrorist-related arrests in recent months across the
UK, as young men and women try and join Islamic State extremists
in Syria.

It is believed that up to 600 Britons have joined the Islamic
State, including the high-profile IS executioner Mohammed Emwazi,
known as Jihadi John.